Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Are you prepared?

There's been quite a few incidents lately that have people questioning their preparedness. From nature fighting back to crazed maniacs shooting up buildings to long term job loss. I've thought about those myself, but there's not much I can do to really prepare except stock up and hope some maniac doesn't snap. My biggest fear right now is what would happen to us if something would happen to the hubs? I'm not working outside of the home, and just starting the blog, so I don't have income flowing in here regularly yet. While I do have some direct sales companies I rep for, I haven't been able to market like I'd like due to no local mailing address (for tax purposes), and I was without a vehicle for over a month.
Would you be okay (financially) if something were to happen to the main bread winner? Savings, income, food? It's not something people want to dwell on, but you need to be prepared. Thanks to my insomnia, I get to dwell on these things in the early morning hours. We'd be pretty much broke. We are living in our motorhome, so we'd have a roof over our heads, but would I be able to pay storage? Would I be able to buy food? Would I be able to pay rent somewhere so we could hook up to electric and water?
Since we just started a new year, and we're in a new state, I figure it's time to start. I've started putting some money into savings. Not much. I'm following the 52 weeks of savings. Basically you save the dollar amount of the week of the year. Week 1 - $1, week 26- $26. At the end of the year you'll have almost $1400 saved. If you work it backwards and have an interest bearing account, you'll have even more saved! It's a great way to save for the holidays or even a vacation. I'm hoping to save more and use it as our emergency fund. We were without a truck for a month when the alternator died. It wasn't a huge cost, but I had other bills planned, so it had to wait. If we would have had an emergency fund, the kids and I could have explored our new city a bit.
I need to find my accounts and see just how much life insurance we have on the hubs. Not enough, I'm sure! While we don't make a ton of money, it's enough to keep us fed, clothed and housed. I have no additional schooling or training, and I'd prefer to stay home with my kids. Adding life insurance is high on my priorities!
We're doing all right money wise right now. Just the car loan, and 2 small credit cards. We can't refinance our truck due to it's age - according to the credit union. I'd prefer not getting a new (to us) vehicle quite yet. I'm hoping to have the money to by one with cash when we're ready. The credit cards should be at $0 before June.
That leaves our food situation. Normally I'd like to have our chest freezer and fridge freezer full plus a pantry stocked with canned goods, but we're in a motorhome with limited storage space. I may buy some gift cards to local stores and restaurants to have on hand. I'm working on clearing out my email with all of my surveys and click to earns so I can earn some gift cards as well.
If you have any questions or if I forgot anything, please let me know!

2 comments:

lifeinthepack-joan.blogspot.com said...

Mom of 9 here! We started practicing Dave Ramsey's principals and doing our Total Money Makeover about a year ago. Like you, I stay at home and recognize how important it is to be prepared for whatever might come, especially with little mouths to feed! I love what I we are learning, and am finding that Financial Peace is within our grasp. Best of luck with your blog~

Mom 2 Many said...

I actually have the Dave Ramsey package, just we did a long distance move before I could read it in depth. I'm basically just paying what we have (2 small credit cards) and putting aside money every week. I do have to do a bit of research into how much life insurance we should have.
Thanks fo rstopping by!